Well, this is the day to which we have been pointing now for months.  Election Day.  All the ads on TV and radio, all the signs on the road side have been reminding us to go to the polls on this day, November 4, to cast our votes for particular candidates.  I am going to the polls to vote tomorrow.  I rarely ever miss an opportunity to vote.  Do you?

I think Christians have a responsibility to vote.  I have always believed this.  One reason is that my paternal grandfather was for a number of years chief voter registrar in one of the large counties making up metro Atlanta, Georgia.  Pop was passionate about voting.  He got me registered to vote when I turned eighteen.  He sent me absentee ballots when I was in college.  I can remember voting in the Presidential election of 1968, my first, using an absentee ballot which he sent me.  Pop would not be happy with the low percentage of voters who actually vote today.  He was unhappy back then with people who would not go to vote.  He proposed an idea which I still think is good:  He proposed that people who fail to vote should be fined.  Maybe not much of a fine but a fine nonetheless.  It might make a point.  Voting is important.  Our forefathers worked, fought, and many died so that we could have this right to vote.

I have been a pastor for more than thirty-five years.  Every time there is an election I urge people to go to the polls to vote.  I cannot tell them how to vote and would not do so if I could.  The Internal Revenue Service has strict rules about churches and other non-profit organizations which are not taxed and elections.  We are not permitted to endorse any candidates.  We can hold forums for potential voters to which we invite all the candidates for a particular seat or position to come to present their views.  That would not have the result of endorsing any one of them.  Some churches do endorse candidates today; they risk losing their tax exempt status when they do that.

Does this mean that I don't care or don't have an opinion personally about candidates?  By no means!  I am just as passionate about the candidates I support as anyone.  And by the way, I frequently cross over from one party to the other when I vote.  I am registered in one party, but that does not restrict me to that party when I vote.  I believe that Christians should get as much good information as they can about the candidates before the election.  Informed choices are the best ones.

I am happiest when the turnout of voters is the largest.  That way, the community, city, county, state, or nation has more fully spoken than if only a small percentage and number of voters go to the polls.  I am most alarmed about our system when the percentage of voters who actually vote continues to decline.  That means a smaller and smaller number of people actually determine who will fill the slots.  Another word for that is oligarchy.  I don't want oligarchy in the USA.  I want us to continue to have a democratic republic.  The best way to insure that is to urge people to vote.  So, I do that to any and all readers of this column today and for any other election.  Study up on the issues and candidates, go to the polls, and vote!